Workers, Economists Bemoan Mismatch Between Company Profits And Workers' Salaries

Workers’ unions have bemoaned a mismatch between huge profits that are being made by local companies and poor salaries that are then given to workers.

Renowned economist, Doctor Godfrey Kanyenze bemoaned the current deficits and recommended that the Tripartite Negotiation Forum (TNF) is the only way out. He said:

What we see is the widening gap of inequality, with “the haves” amassing more wealth while the workers continue to drown in poverty. Worse still companies are enjoying a lot of favourable policies like duty exemptions, access to foreign currency at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Foreign Exchange Auction yet they even decline to pay for taxes in the same currency,” Kanyenze said.

They charge for goods and services in US$ or rate salaries at prices which are rated against parallel market rates. There is an urgent need to deal with the matter at the TNF.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president, Florence Taruvinga said they are pushing for the restoration of the salaries that workers earned in 2018. She added:

It’s a struggle that is continuing and deepening hence making use of any strategy available which will yield results. There is no way employers would opt for any sharing option, that has never been a character of capital.

Recent data shared by top labour economist, Prosper Chitambara reveals that on average, professionally graded workers are taking home an equivalent of US$180 which is very lower to the incomes being earned by other workers in the SADC region.

He said as of the second quarter of 2021, the average salary paid to South African employees in the formal sector rose from R23 127 in February 2021 to R23 526, almost equivalent to US$1 568  in May 2021.

In Zambia, the national average salary is K4393 equivalent to US$258.

Chitambara added that the average salary in Mozambique at 40 200 meticais per month, which is equivalent to US$629.86, while in Eswatini the average income is US$3 580.

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